“Sometimes it is easy to consider evil corruption as personal possession, the land upon which people build might hold the malice inherent.” Jeremiah Delalande, The Book of The Exorcist.
The sound of crying seeped through the brickwork, barely audible, but there nevertheless. Elisabeth drew closer, hardly daring to breathe. Gingerly, she pressed a trembling palm against the wall, pressing her left ear against it. The crying subsided into a whimper.
“Are you the girl from upstairs?” she ventured in a quiet motherly tone. Inside she was shaking.
A tiny voice replied, “Yes, are you running too?”
“From what?”
“The thing in my room. It used to come at night.”
Elisabeth felt like something just walked over her grave. Ignoring the obvious question she continued, “Why are you behind there child?”
The weeping began again and between gasping sobs the reply chilled Elisabeth causing hairs to rise on the back of her neck. “They said I was a monster and put me in here to die.”
Swallowing nothing, Elisabeth shuddered, and a wave of empty horror rippled through her soul. They buried you alive. Trying to keep her voice steady she kneeled, still with her palm touching the tomb.
“Why on earth did they think that?”
The child’s voice spat venom. “Because of him.”
“Who?”
The reply was cold as death. “The one you just woke up.”
Extract from “Letters of The Amanuensis – Houghton Fengrave”
Two more candles now illuminated a second desk. Upon it lay charts and overlays of the land now consumed by the Black Marsh upon whose edge sat Marsh Bank House.
In another age the land was pure. A fen created by an oxbow lake that was sealed off as a river to the north forged a new path. Around this grew a hamlet. A mirror of another such enclave in another world on another plane of existence.
Pagan if he read it right.
The Amanuensis traced a finger over the parchments. A heathen chapel and yard of the dead sat on the edge of the lake.
A later version showed different topography. Less water and more marsh.
Another showed no water and in a third it was all bog.
Exorcist.
“Who dares disturb my slumber?”
An inquisitor.
“Finally. The Marsh has woken according to prophecy yes?”
That is what I am trying to discern.
“It is rumoured to be bottomless now.”
And if you reach the bottom, you emerge at the surface.
“Quite.”
Names, Jeremiah. Why is this place dead?
“Houghton Fengrave, That is it’s name now.”
I know.
“And you want to know why?”
Yes.
“Cast your runes.”
Upon what.
“The parchments.”
ENTRY PAUSED
The Amanuensis turned each page before him over. Blank sides up, map and ink below. Cast the runes. How did the exorcist know of this? A prophecy too, of the Marsh waking. This he had seen before. A turn of phrase by the ghost child as she ensnared Beechwood.
Jeremiah was before that. Long, long before and his elegy rested above a grave lost within the old chapel grounds beyond the perimeter of the present cemetery holding the bones of a twin.
Significant it was the old chapel? Links to the War Monks, or was that reading too much into things?
He felt the room turn cold. A reflection of the things turning in his mind.
What was missing on the later parchment was the settlement. The bog had expanded and it rested in the depths with only the highest point visible at the centre.
The town by the fen, Bywater, becoming Fenlake, becoming Fengrave. Consumed by the same marsh on another world spilling into this one. Tainting it and dragging across legends, myths and ignis fatuus. Both sides mirrors and at the centre slumbered a madman and a beast.
Is that the naming?
“Yes, Houghton came later after the Romans.”
And Fengrave?
“Because Bywater was lost as the ground fell and all was consumed by the fen water. Your runes speak true. Bywater became Fenlake until the marsh turned black. Read the extract. Bodies cast into the Fen. Another name was made.”
Who built the house.
“That path ran cold. It was not there and then it was. No records anywhere prior to 1586.”
1586?
“Correct.”
300 years exactly to the day it was fired.
“I don’t know about that.”
After your time.
“There is another funny thing.”
Which is?
“In 1286…”
ENTRY TERMINATED
The Amanuensis stared long and long. 1286 the year a new settlement died en masse. Women’s, children, men folk and beasts. This he had on record and it was that the Exorcist had referred. 200 hundred found dead. No witness, no explanation, no survivors.
“The stench of decay was remarkable. Under normal circumstances it would take a week to turn the dead this far, and yet yesterday all was well. Traders came in and came out. There is no authentic explanation for such genocide. Even the animals lie rotting. Birds too. A hundred yards wide encompassing this accursed marsh which is now black. Nothing lives, nothing at all. If ‘tis plague then we are all ill-fated now.
The sheriff has ordered everything burned. Bodies, carcasses and homes. Already this has been disobeyed and many have been weighted and tossed into the bog. A mistake, for now they rest in soiled ground, unhallowed and unclean. This is folly.”
There was more, words describing a change in aura, a gathering of darkness, a shift in atmosphere.
876, held myths. Lights out over the bog at night and foul mists drifting inland. Hiding the edges. Cattle lost and drowned, men too. In the Dark came those lost in the marsh their number growing.
And yet, after the house appeared, silence fell. Only the house drew the ghosts and fiends within. Rooms that swallowed people, cellars with bricked up monsters and Elisabeth Beechwood, the woman who died and wouldn’t leave
It acted like a reservoir, or sump or some magnetic contraption that kept the marsh in check. Wishful thinking. He sighed and wiped his forehead. 1875, the full cycle wakes not again until 2175.
His eyes turned to the future books.
His hand plucked out another. Returning to the first desk he open the pages. The future guiding him to the past in another world and a word…
Inamorata.
It was four weeks to the day she became aware that she was avoiding one room in particular. Initially, it was just that, being at the very top of the staircase. It was not the ideal place to set up the main bedroom and nursery. This was settled to be the left-wing, with the right side being for guests.
The room in the middle was therefore undisturbed and could possibly become a study at some later date. However, as time wore on she noticed her path actually swerved away from the door whenever passing in front of it. On one day in particular this thought distilled almost audibly and Elisabeth paused. She put her ear to the door, half expecting to find she was being rather silly. Unfortunately for her things took a turn for the worse.
Come in Elisabeth, we have been expecting you.
It was only a whisper in her head, but bore vitriol and carried a venom that fuelled irresistible despair. It was also incredibly hypnotic, encouraging her hand to turn a polished brass door handle despite her subconscious screaming “No” as she was forced to cross the threshold. Time slowed.
Elisabeth noticed the room looked much older than everywhere else and it was cold, very cold. She shivered. It reminded her of the cellar. Dark, dank and dingy. This room was unloved and desperately in need of renovation.
“Is there anybody in here?”
She asked the question knowing the room was empty, and that the voice had been in her mind. Idly, she wandered toward the window tracing finger tips through the dust gathered on an old dressing table. The view from the window took in the Marsh.
It was as if the random planting of trees in the garden were not random at all when seen from this room. They provided a deciduous corridor, taking the eye beyond the garden and across the wetlands to what looked like a folly. Distant and entombed in overgrowth, but clearly visible from this room. Almost as if it was the only place destined to be able to see it.
From the grounds, only an isolated copse existed far out in the Marshes. Rumour had it that ghosts collected there. Unwary wanderers drowned in the bogs and pools whose souls crawled from the waters drawn to the tiny island of dry land. Elisabeth had considered this to be tattle designed to keep children from wandering into the Marshes.
Staring at it, as she was now, made her rather more uncertain.
Houghton Fengrave evolved over four years from a vague idea, a place-name that was something else for considerable time. I’ve possibly undercooked it’s history here to avoid too many spoilers.
That said the 300 year cycling is new to me. I need to commune with this Amanuensis methinks.
As always, feel free to pass judgement in the comments section. All words are welcome.
Truly a tale from the Dark side…great character development 😺
Flipping heck, are you reading all of them at once?? Mind you, probably makes more sense that way! All these were written off the bat. The Amanuensis is totally new and so are most of his associates such as Yish, Jeremiah, and Eldred Mortain. It all seems to tie into every book I’ve written! X
It’s really taking shape – have you ever watched “Stranger Things”? x
Watched it? Would you believe I’ve never even heard of it? Sign of a great TV watcher 😂😂
I had to change the the town name in all my manuscripts after this turned up!
Lol – the parallel world thing interested me…if you get chance, have a look..reminiscent of Mr.King’s short story “Stand by Me” is it? Where he explores themes like childhood friendship and trauma…xx
It interests me too… which is why I write about such things lol. I’ve not seen that…which is annoying as I am a huge King fan. Must look it up. In fact that is tomorrow’s must do task… now if I could just write like him then sorted 😂
Hope you got chance to see the almost-similarities between Stranger Things and some of Stephen King’s stuff, it’s worth a little look x
Hmm, I don’t know Stranger Things… at least it’s not ringing any bells…might be age related amnesia… eek.
I’m quite wary of almost similarities too. The concept of other worlds and dimensions is physics. That’s my prime source of using them. Dark Tower is my favourite book series and it’s a huge inspiration. I don’t want to replicate concepts from there though 😱
I meant to tell you – I actually managed to watch the film with Idris Elba… I know it will make your purist King mind shudder with horror… but it did make some of his concepts a little easier to understand.
Your stuff tends to be a lot more instantly readable and immediate, accessible even to a novice Dark sider like me…xx
Ooh, my last ISWG post had the inspiration behind Kings Dark Tower in the form of Browns poem, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came. Did you see that one?
I’ve actually watched the movie eight times now. The important thing to recognise as a purist is that this turn of the wheel was AFTER the last book in the series. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s not brilliant either. I can pro and con it at the same time! Even thought about a post on it lol.
Ooh. My stuff is instantly readable. Really? I always find self evaluation hard because I know it so well I can fill in gaps a reader might not. I also think you are a fine acolyte too. Easing into the dark side really well 😂 xx
I need to go back and read the poem again too, I feel…thought your post had a lyricism to it that fits quite well into the great scheme of things..xx
It did? I never considered lyricism in my writing. It sounds rather like poetry and I’m rubbish at that! I’m hoping to do another SoC post when the prompt comes out tomorrow and twist it into more back story for the world of the Amanuensis 😇
Looking forward to that then – you don’t have to be a poet to be lyrical. Told you that before when I first read your fishing memory 🙂
Good point! I stand corrected 😊
Wow, yes. The memoir. That seems such a long time ago now. One day I may actually write down how I write. That could be fascinating in an exercise of self appraisal 🤔
It would be interesting but also when self-appraising, remember to be both kind and constructive. I fall into hyper critical mode, start crying, binge eat cheese, throw up…xx
Lol. That was very do as I say, not as I do. 😂 I’m very self critical and to be honest that is terrible for procrastinating assists !
Of course, I’m great at the do as I say stuff… and also hideously self-critical too under the guise of being realistic…xx
clearly I recognised that simply because I do it all the time too! Self critical works up to a point…beyond which it becomes terribly un-mindful. Rather akin to saying “I’ll make a pants job of the re-theme, so go have a cup of tea instead!” X
My oh my this is to rivetting Gary. Loved it. You write spooky, dark tales so well. Transfixed. 🙂
Thanks Marje, this whole challenge is becoming a story of its own. The Scribe is becoming a proper character in my head now. I fear another book idea is imminent 🤔
That was positively blood curling. “Him. The one you just woke up.” I wanna run now!! Loved this:)
My blogs in the A to Z: Self discovery via travel and a separate Interactive story.
Lol, thanks…I’m really trying not to give too much away. Threads do follow with each letter too.